PETERBOROUGH striker Aaron Mclean has warned Ipswich that United are serious about winning tonight's Carling Cup tie.

Derek Davis

By Derek Davis

PETERBOROUGH striker Aaron Mclean has warned Ipswich that United are serious about winning tonight's Carling Cup tie.

With both teams struggling in the Championship, with just one point apiece and both in the bottom three the competition is taking on much greater significance this year.

Mclean believes a confidence-boosting victory over fellow strugglers Ipswich tonight is just what Posh need to turn their season around.

Mclean said: “Both teams are in the same boat tonight. We have both started slowly and we could both do with a win for the sake of confidence if nothing else.

“Form can turn around quickly. Sometimes it needs just one scrappy win to get you going. We are certainly treating the Carling Cup as an important competition because we need to start winning games.”

Like Ipswich Peterborough are struggling to keep things tight at the back. They netted four in the first round win over Wycombe Wanderers, while Town got three at Shrewsbury, and Mclean is confident they too can get things right.

He said: “We're not far away from turning things around in my opinion. As the manager has said we need to be more ruthless in both boxes.

“I don't think we have been playing badly going forward, but we are not going to get as many chances in the Championship so we need to make sure we take a good percentage of them

“And we obviously need to stop conceding so many bad goals, but I'm sure that will come as well.”

Posh will attempt to reach the third round of the Carling Cup for the first time in 16 years tonight.

They have had an appalling record in this competition since reaching the fourth round when a League One club in the 1993-94 season (teams in the top two divisions were given byes to the second round in those days) and they have never won more than one tie in the same season since then.